New Content at SusanOhanian.Org!

[Susan Ohanian <susano@gmavt.net>]

NCTE announced the Orwell Award. I've included the press release. That's the good news.

The bad news is that I don't think the Chicago Sun-Times should get away with the trashy article they submitted on the issue of NCLB qualified special ed teachers. Write them a letter.

And how do you feel about tests made in China? Hey, everything else is.

Don't miss the review of the new book by Frank Smith. Don't miss the book either!

Susan

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Discipline and Punish
Annette Fuentes
The Nation
2003-12-15
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1442

Every year, more than 3 million students are suspended and nearly 100,000 more are expelled, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Of those, untold thousands increasingly face police action for disciplinary problems that were previously handled in school, because forty-one states now require that certain acts committed in school be reported to the police. Boys in general are the targets, with African-American males bearing a disproportionate brunt of suspensions and disciplinary actions.

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Bush's Phony Voucher Movement
The Black Commentator
blackcommentator.com
2003-12-04
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1443

This hard-hitting piece points out that while the administration starves its own No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and disrupts local school districts through non-funded mandates, voucher advocates are lavished with taxpayer dollars to discredit the very concept of public education. Bush’s Education Department, infested with rightwing ideologues, now serves as headquarters and paymaster for the public schools’ fiercest enemies. 



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School System Performance Getting New Measuring Sticks
David Herszenhorn
New York Times
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1444

Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said yesterday that his office was developing new ways to measure performance in the school system that would offer a far more sophisticated analysis than is currently gleaned from standardized test results. Klein's looking toward merit pay. Advisor to this effort comes from Accenture. Go to Ohanian comments preceding this article for a glimpse at what Accenture does.



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China to Create AP Tests for U.S. High Schools
Jay Mathews
Washington Post
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1445

Chinese officials announced today that they will spend nearly $700,000 to create an Advanced Placement Chinese language and culture test for U.S. high schools. 

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Council of the Great City Schools Offers Spin on the New York Times Article About Houston
Michael Casserly, Ex. Dir. Council of the Great Ci
Houston Chronicle
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1446

In offering a spin on the New York Times arcticle analyzing data on Houston, the Executive Director of the Council of the Great City Schools doesn't mention that they gave their friend Rod Paige an award in 1999

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Education Reform Leaves Private Schools with No Way to Get State Certification
Michelle Fuetsch
The News Journal
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1447



Public schools in Delaware are not the only ones challenged by the state's sweeping education reform laws. The long arm of government accountability has reached into the Catholic school system too - by invitation. Catholic schools have to give create astandardized testing system that mirrors the state's--or their teachers can't get state certification. 

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Education Advocate wins 2003 NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language
NCTE
News Release
2003-12-04
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=1448

The National Council of Teachers of English named susanohanian.org winner of the 2003 Orwell Award.

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Meet Frank Smith
Gary Stager

2003-12-04
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=188

In his latest book, Frank Smith reduces our educational problems to a simple dichotomy. You either believe that learning occurs naturally or unnaturally. Prof. Gary Stager offers a review.

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More Chicago School Teachers May Fall Short
Rosalind Rossi
Chicago Sun-Times
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_news.html?id=238

An article tilted so far against Chicago Public Schools that it doesn't qualify as news indicates that parents of as many as 85,000 Chicago public school students received letters this week alerting them that their children's teachers weren't "highly qualified'' under tough new federal standards. Critics contended far more letters should have been issued.


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Massachusetts Schools Get F in Progress
Kevin Rothstein
Boston Herald
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=261


Thirty-eight Bay State schools - including a dozen in Boston - failed to meet federal benchmarks for the fifth year in a row, setting the stage for "corrective action."

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NCLB Change In Rules for Special Ed Don't Address the Larger Problem
Eleanor Chute
Pittsburgh  Post-Gazette
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=262

New federal rules for testing special education students will go into effect next week, but they won't address one of the biggest complaints from school officials: testing the majority of special education students as other students at the same grade level.


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  Forum Has Little Good To Say  About 'No Child Left Behind'
Sandy Cooch
Randolph Herald
2003-12-05
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=263

At a NCLB information-sharing session for legislators and the community recently, few of the 50 folks gathered had anything good to say about the law. For example, as of this year, Randolph Elementary School Principal Steve Metcalf is spending 40% of his time managing data and other NCLB requirements for the entire Vermont Orange Southwest Supervisory Union (OSSU.)